At Risk

Rating:
Summary: A SHARP EDGED FIRST-CLASS DEBUT
Review:
"At Risk" is a sharp edged first-class debut by an author who well knows her subject. The first woman director general of Britain's MI5, Stella Rimington, lived the perils and pitfalls found in this amazing spy thriller. She experienced the inner office politics encountered as a woman in a man's world, and faced the realities of terrorist attacks. After 25 years experience she is now a counter-terrorism expert and she brings all of her expertise to bear in penning her first novel.

Akin to the author herself protagonist Liz Carlyle is an Intelligence Officer with consummate smarts. In a male dominated profession, she's a bit of an in-your-face gal wearing high heels and designers duds. While most of her colleagues at Thames House tend to be drably dressed, Liz "often spent Saturday afternoons combing the antique clothing stalls in Camden Market for quixotically stylish bargains which, while they infringed no Service rules, certainly raised a few eyebrows."

Her one flaw seems to be found in affairs of the heart - her married boyfriend is really a louse. He's a man who "...had always had an unerring instinct for the tradecraft of adultery." Ah, well, not even Liz can know everything.

What she would very much like to know, actually needs to know is how to identify the terrorists who are able to cross borders because of their ethnic identity with the country they're entering. Almost before we know it our heroine is head to head with Al Qaeda and their like. She has consulted with her agents and determined that there is more than a probable terrorist threat - it's very possible. Suspense builds as each day and hour brings this possibility closer.

Liz is aided in her search by her superior, Charles Wetherby, a rather enigmatic but intriguing married man. It's obvious early on that Liz's growing interest in him is more than professional admiration.

Stella Rimington raises the bar for thriller writers with her compelling observation to detail, and shows a deft ability to create mounting suspense as the story unfolds.

- Gail Cooke


Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced with lots of procedural detail
Review: After almost 30 years in Britain's Security Service, MI5, Stella Rimington retired and began writing. First she wrote a memoir, "Open Secret," and now she's produced an intelligent, fast-paced and all-too-plausible thriller of Islamic terrorism and interagency co-option and co-operation.

The narrative shifts between the protagonist, MI5's Liz Carlyle ("in large part autobiographical," says Rimington), and the terrorists, an Afghan man and an intense English girl, an "invisible" in spy parlance. The action begins with the Afghan's clandestine entrance into England, which culminates in the murder of one of his guides, a fisherman who dabbles in smuggling.

The unusual armor-piercing ammunition used, and tips from two of Liz' widely separated informants, alert MI5 to a possible terrorist link. Liz joins the murder investigation in seaside Norfolk, which soon has several police units, Special Branch and MI6 swarming over it as well. Luck and error play nearly as big a role as skill and intelligence on both sides of the divide, as the terrorists and the investigators advance.

Rimington folds professional issues seamlessly into the suspense. Liz loves the adrenaline rush of her job and the all-consuming nature of the work, but she doesn't gloss over turf battles, the extra problems women face, and the awkward balances between the personal and professional, pragmatism and ethics, the greater good and the individual good. Tightly plotted, and psychologically astute, readers will hope it's the first of many.

Rating:
Summary: exciting counter-terrorist espionage thriller
Review: At Thames House, the Joint Counter-Terrorist Group employees learn that the al-Safa organization of the Islamic Terror Syndicate is planting an "Invisible". Pakistan cooperates and the Immigration Office combs the lists for possible suspects. However, the M-15 and M-16 attendees know how difficult to uncover an Invisible is as these terrorists are a special breed being a native of the host nation. An agent just in from Islamabad corroborates that al-Safa is a rare Islamic terrorist organization because it welcomes full blood Caucasians.

M-15 agent-runner Liz Carlyle sees her work as a means to avoid her matchmaking mother and a place to hide from her married lover, Mark Callendar, who is no longer convenient. The need to track down the Invisible becomes imminent as the evidence mounts that something big is about to occur. Liz starts to put a human face that seems increasingly female to the trigger, but who she is and who is her handler remains just out of visible scope especially since agents allegedly on her side decide not to share information with anyone.

This exciting counter-terrorist espionage thriller travels on two story lines that connect via the heroine. Readers receive an exciting race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe while also seeing the inner office shenanigans of hiding critical information behind a need not to know façade and sexual harassment towards the token estrogen in a testosterone world. The prime plot is typical of the sub-genre with its adrenaline rush to climax, but is slowed down somewhat by the office side, which is more interestingly unique (and perhaps autobiographical) though not as exhilarating. Spy fans are not AT RISK reading this fine tale.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Pleasant First Novel
Review: I was certainly attracted to this novel when I read Dame Rimington was former director of MI-5. I figured the novel would be complex, accurate, and fast paced. Although a bit simple, it did not disappoint me.

Liz is a mid-level agent runner for MI-5, and she gets a disturbing image that a terror threat from militant jihadists could explode on British soil. To make matters worse for MI-5, the attack is aided and abetted by an "invisible" (a native or near-native of the country or ethnic group being attacked). Liz and her co-workers must work around the clock to discover the who, when, where, why, and how regarding this attack.

The book is fairly well written, and the pacing is brisk. The plot was a bit simple--there are no subplots, relationship tensions between intelligence officers, etc. The above paragraph describes the storyline pretty much in its entirety. It does seem to be realistic, and Liz is a very likable protagonist. I really hope Rimington will continue to develop as a writer in the modern espionage fiction genre, and it'd be fun to see more of Liz (and maybe a deepening of the relationship with her boss?).

Rating:
Summary: INTELLIGENCE
Review: In my far from extensive reading of espionage novels I think this is the first since Maugham's Ashenden, which is a different kind of book entirely, where I have actually been able to follow the plot. There are probably two reasons for this. One is that the author is a top-level intelligence insider, and one who reached the top through working up within the organisation, and who consequently knows and is able to convey the real feel of it. The other, I suspect, is that she is a newcomer to fiction-writing who has not quite mastered the trick of bamboozlement, although of course it may also be that she has no interest in that and that nothing was further from her intention.

Dame Stella Rimington has, to my way of thinking, a very attractive cast of mind, at least to the extent that it shows in this book. By her own admission her 'narrator' (to all intents and purposes) has a lot of herself in her. If she had tried to suggest otherwise I would not have believed her for an instant. I enjoyed the ironic little asides, especially the one about publishing memoirs in the teeth of official disapproval. I liked this kind of professionalism in respect of the job too. It is the mind-set of a reasonable, dedicated but level-headed woman with a sense of humour and a sense of proportion, making the best sense she can of the terrorist mentality without either ideological blindness on the one hand or fuzzy-headed liberalism on the other. She even shows an engaging detachment regarding her 'narrator's own emotional involvement, and it may be that organising that side of it into a story was a help to her personally. The character-drawing is distinctly good, I should say, although I am curious to know why she chose the name Ray Gunter in one case. A certain Ray Gunter was minister of labour in Harold Wilson's first cabinet in 1964, and Dame Stella is of an age to remember him at least as well as I do. Those were the days when a Labour government was deeply suspect in the intelligence community as having dark and improbable links with a supposed international communist conspiracy, and it could be that they sought such tendencies even in the wholly unprogressive Gunter, a figure as deeply unalluring as the thuggish fisherman and people-smuggler in her tale. Her device of introducing one or two minor characters as observers of the scene here and there works quite well for me, adding a bit of variety to the narrative. The style of writing is light, racy and enjoyable for the most part, though she and her editors between them might have tidied up a few slipshod touches. In particular even in this day and age someone ought to have known that `tempus mutantur' is a howling solecism, and there was a time when no reputable publisher, probably no disreputable one either, would have let `who's' through for `whose'.

The plot-line is good and well sustained in general. I don't know whether the 'narrator's intention to break off her affair was meant to be left hanging in the way it is, but my main difficulty with the story was actually that the intended terrorist atrocity seems, by the standards we are coming to know, comparatively minor. In one respect Dame Stella is ambiguous, and I hope intentionally so. Right at the beginning of the book the 'narrator' highlights the co-operative attitude of the various security agencies in response to the prime minister's demand that turf-wars must not happen in the post-9/11 environment. Right at the end we find out what has actually happened in that respect. The 'narrator' does not emphasise the contrast, and I wonder what the author means us to think. The way the actors behave is not something unique to the world of security, it is what happens in big organisations generally. There is more to intelligence than intelligence in either sense of the word, and Dame Stella can't have reached the position she did without finding that out at an early stage.

Rating:
Summary: NOT WORTH THE MONEY
Review: Stella Rimington did a sub par job. The ending was expected and boring. The novel was relatively interesting but an ending like it had was most certainly a let down. I regret spending money on the book. I would expect Ms. Rimington to know better than to write something so obviously skewed. She should take a page from Daniel Silva and learn how to set aside personal happenings or wishes from novel worthy ones. It was obvious to me the entire time I was reading the novel who would come out on top. There wasn't even any pretense to the contrary.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful debut novel.
Review: Stella Rimington's "At Risk" is everything a spy novel should be. It's timely, intricate, deeply psychological, action-packed, and suspenseful. The heroine is Liz Carlyle, a member of M15, Britain's domestic military intelligence division. She has risen in the ranks because she is super-competent, extremely sharp, and obsessed with being the best at what she does. Liz has sacrificed the very idea of home and family; she is married to her job.

When Liz gets together with her colleagues in the Joint Counter-Terrorism Group, she learns that Islamic terrorists may be deploying an "invisible" to stage an attack in Great Britain. An "invisible" is an individual who is Western in appearance and has the credentials to blend into his or her surroundings undetected by the authorities. When the mysterious killing of a shadowy figure named Ray Gunter occurs soon after this information is released, alarm bells go off. Gunter was shot with a special type of sophisticated weapon that would unavailable to an ordinary street thug. In addition, Gunter may have been involved in the smuggling of illegal immigrants into England. Could one of these illegals be a terrorist at large? This gives Liz and her team all of the ammunition that they need to start an investigation into a possible act of violence to be carried out in the near future on English soil.

The characters in "At Risk" are all skillfully depicted. Besides Liz, there is her steady boss, Wetherby, who seems to understand Liz better than she does herself. Much to her chagrin, Liz is suddenly forced to work with Bruno Mackay, a member of M16, Britain's foreign military intelligence division, who knows a great deal about the Pakistani terrorist scene. Mackay is an arrogant and handsome man who is as supercilious as he is charismatic. In addition, Rimington goes to great pains to delve into the minds of the terrorists. Rather than dismissing them as crazed and suicidal ideologues, she shows them to be troubled individuals whose agenda has as much to do with deep emotional pain as it does with political and religious philosophy. This gives "At Risk" a depth and complexity that run-of-the-mill spy thrillers often lack.

Rimington has a smooth and fast-paced style. The dialogue is funny, biting, hard-hitting, and realistic. Since Rimington worked for thirty-years in Britain's Secret Service and was the first female director general of M15, she knows a great deal about subversion, espionage, and counter-terrorism. Therefore, it is not surprising that "At Risk" is filled with fascinating details about the workings of England's various security organizations.

With all this, "At Risk" would not have worked half as well if Rimington weren't such a terrific storyteller. She plunges us into a dark and forbidding world of hatred, vengeance, murder, and desperation, and she provides no pat answers for the problems posed in the book. "At Risk" is one of the best spy novels of the year and I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: The Story Of My Life, Or Something Similar
Review: Stella Rimington, in her book "At Risk" has begun to lay out the story of my life as a spy. Of course, Liz Carlyle, the heroine and the superwoman of this novel, works for MI5. In my dreams, I worked for the CIA- but then, what is the difference in a continent and a culture?

Stella Rimington, was the Head of Britain's MI5. She joined MI5 or their Security Service in 1969. During the thirty three years of her career, she became director of all three of MI5's departments, counter-terrorism, counter-subversion, and counter-espionage. At long last in 1992 she became the first female director general. She and her family had to live quiet, secret lives, away from the public and this was very hard on her family. Stella Rimington, in my mind, must be a fabulous person. She has written such creative, intelligent and more than interesting characters for us to get to know. We come to understand that this is the beginning of a series with Liz Carlyle because so much is hinted at and left undone.

Liz Carlyle, my counter-person, is one of those women you admire and respect at first meet. She is very attractive with a slim, athletic body. But, more than that, she is a woman of great intellect and intuition. She knows and loves her job, that of a spy-runner, and she worked her way up the system through her cunning and intelligence. No womanly wiles would ever get this kind of job, and in Britain, where the male gender is still dominant-an unheard of thing.

Liz gets word of some sort of activity on counter-terrorism through one of her agents. Over the course of a few days she puts little bits and pieces together and is able to garner more information that puts these pieces together. Her, supervisor, Charles Wetherby, trusts her intuition and information and a plan of action is developed. Into this action, come members of the MI6, the foreign counter- terrorism group. Bruno MacKay (don't you love that name, Bruno) is part of MI6 and works closely with Liz on this case. Bruno is not what he seems, except that he feels superior because of his sex, and he and Liz have several arguments. Liz, to her credit, does not let him off easy, and he understands she is leading this case and he must do her bidding. Two terrorists come into country in a different manner, and it is Liz who figures this all out. She tries to get into the mind of these terrorists, and does an admirable job. She understands who they are, and maybe what they hope to achieve.

Liz has a married lover, who plays a small part in this story, but it is left undone and so we know that more will come. The beginning and middle of this novel are so well written, keeping us on our toes. However, the ending is disappointing to me. Too anti-climactic for such an action novel. It feels hurried in some sense. However, because the base of this novel is so well done and the suspense builds up slowly and expertly, I forgive the author. This is a hard to put down novel. Come on Stella, another book soon, please. Highly recommended. prisrob


Rating:
Summary: pedestrian at best
Review: This author lets us know this is her first book by using poor writing integrity and a thinly plotted story line. There is little action of signifigance. The story line plods along to a whimper in the last hurried paragraphs of the book. Had Ms Rimington not had impressive professional crime solving credits behind her name, no editor would have gotten past the first chapter of this book.